


Double Dates are OUT

by Uzumi



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Established Relationship, F/M, M/M, Sibling Bonding, Wedding Planning, also the actual wedding, sibling in law bonding, there'll be panic attacks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-07
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2020-11-26 10:29:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20928746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Uzumi/pseuds/Uzumi
Summary: Lup CANNOT believe her brother is getting married before her (ignoring that she got married across multiple planes during the Stolen Century). As the older sister she couldn't just let it happen, she had to get married first and she had to have the most amazing wedding ever. Now she only had to find out what the perfect wedding was.Taako did not notice that Lup made the weddings a competition. He didn’t do it on purpose, he promised. It was just so hard to keep track of his sister. Or the fact that he had a sister. Living with the memory of two different lives lead to unexpected consequences, like forgetting he actually had a sister. His solution to stop forgetting about it? She needed to be front and centre during his own (unforgettable) wedding. If she was right there, then he wouldn't forget about her anymore. Right?Right?And what bigger part could Lup play in Taako’s wedding, than ALSO getting married? Double dates are OUT, double weddings are IN.





	1. Late Night Talk

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the TAZ bang!

Taako was sipping on a half-empty glass with lime go-gurt flavoured water when Kravitz entered the kitchen. Neither of them really needed sleep, with Kravitz being death and Taako being an elf. It shouldn't be unusual to sit in the kitchen at 2 a.m, why waste precious hours of the night sleeping? 

Yep. Nothing unusual here, (death) officer. 

Kravitz would make fun of him for all eternity if Taako would have tried to say that out loud. Who was he kidding, sleeping was the best way to spend any time of the day, and it was a joke that Taako simply could. not. sleep. 

This worried his fiancé, who had kept meticulous track of how often Taako couldn’t sleep. _It was too often_, Kravitz had said. _You have no idea how often is too often_, had Taako said while knowing that his track record was too high. But sometimes an elf had to spend some time by himself. Sometimes it happened a few nights in a row. It’s chill. 

Almost as chill as the hand that touched his back. Then he felt a quick kiss at the top of his head, making him smile. The cold used to bother him, he used to instinctively retract from it. It took him a lot of time to get used to, to expect the coldness and associate it with Kravitz. Now it was comforting. Now he expected the cold feeling when he touched Kravitz. It was refreshing like the cold side of a pillow. Moving to a warmer climate certainly helped, cuddling during the hot hours of the day was amazing. 

And the times when Kravitz’ skin heated up? Those were even more special, they stood out, instead of just being what Taako expected from a person. 

He watched as his fiancé made himself a cup of tea, who in return watched him sip on his water. _They would be sitting here for a while_, thought Taako. Kravitz liked his tea almost completely cold, but refused to speed up the cooling process with magic or by just putting the tea into the fridge. No, it had to cool naturally. They would be sitting here for a while and Taako would have to endure Kravitz’ concerned look. 

(Kravitz was big on talking in a way that differed vastly from Taako. Lack of communication led to countless destroyed lives, and Kravitz wouldn’t let it destroy his. Taako used talking to get out of problems, not to resolve them. He would use his conversational skill to lie his way out of any situation, would charm himself out of trouble. So Kravitz knew better than to pressure Taako into talking, Taako would most certainly talk but not in any productive manner. It was better to wait for Taako to start the conversation. So he waited until Taako caved. Which he always did. Kravitz let out a small sigh as he accepted to let his tea get cold again.)

Taako had slowly sipped a full glass of water and got himself a second by the time he finally resigned himself to talk about his feelings, “I've been thinking about our wedding.”

“Of course,” Kravitz nodded but Taako didn't continue talking. “Anything wrong with our plans?” 

“I just— I don't know.” 

“We can postpone if—,” Kravitz was quick to offer a solution, even though Taako knew how important the date was to him.

“No! No, that's not it. The date is good. Or at least as good as any date,” he said quickly to remove the postponing idea off the table. 

“I like it,” said Kravitz. 

“You picked it.” 

Kravitz smiled as a reply. 

“No, it's—” Taako groaned, “I don't know! Well yes, I do, but.” 

“But?” 

“I'm not saying it's stupid.” 

“But you think it's stupid.” 

“Maybe.” 

“Taako, love.” Kravitz laid his hand on top of Taako's, who immediately grabbed it to hold it against his cheek, enjoying the cool feeling. 

“Alright, so… Lup needs a bigger role in our wedding.” 

Kravitz thought about it for a moment, “Dear…” 

“I know, I know,” Taako was getting defensive. 

“She's involved in everything. The only way she'd get a bigger role is, if she gets married instead.” 

“I thought maybe as a pastor?” 

“You want her to be the pastor?” 

“Can grim reapers officiate weddings?” 

“I… don't think that's within our jurisdiction.” 

Taako groaned and pressed his face further into Kravitz’ hand. “It's dumb anyway,” he said muffled, “she can't walk me down the aisle, be my maid of honour and officiate the wedding.” 

“There are still a few months til the wedding, I'm sure she could get the license—” 

“Don't encourage my 3 a.m. ideas.” 

Kravitz laughed softly, which almost made Taako forget what they were talking about. They have been in love for almost three years, and Kravitz was still as captivating as on their first real date. 

“Why is this bothering you?” 

Ah, there it was. The thing Taako hoped he wouldn't have to voice it, but of course he had to. He couldn't hide his issues forever, didn't want to. But it was hard. 

It was hard to admit that he sometimes forgot about his sister. 

He looked down into his empty glass as he began to explain. “Sometimes I forget that she's there. My memories of growing up alone, my fake memories, are more present than the real ones. They feel more recent, you know?” Taako didn’t really give him any time to say whether he knew that feeling or not. “They technically are more recent! I remember working on my grandpa's farm a hundred years ago, all alone. I also remember doing the same thing two hundred years ago with Lup." 

It was hard to explain how it feels to have two sets of memories that felt equally real. Where the difference was so minor, that he tended to overlook it. Not on purpose, Taako did not want to forget the life he lived with Lup. It just happened whenever he reminded himself that he could persist through all troubles on his own, as he had before. Even though he never had, he had never been alone except for the decade that he was separated from his family. 

Taako was suspicious of every new person he met. He kept reminding himself that he couldn't get attached to people, that they'd leave him or send him away as soon as they have no use for him. Everyone Taako had known from his young adulthood, before he became famous, did that. People used him and abandoned him as soon as he wasn't needed. His memories simply omitted that there was always someone with him. Someone who had never abandoned Taako. 

There are traumas Taako went through that didn't simply disappear when he found out that they never happened. 

"It's all messed up," he continued, "and sometimes I just… forget that I have two versions of the same memory. That one of them is wrong, and it’s usually the one I remember first.” 

Kravitz stroke his thumb over Taako’s hand, showing him kindly that he was there. Not pressuring him to continue talking, while offering comfort. Taako pulled his fiancé’s hand closer to him and Kravitz followed the lead and stood up to circle the table. Offering Taako a hug that he gladly accepted. 

[ ](https://thekingkez.tumblr.com/post/188231161711/kravitz-stroke-his-thumb-over-taakos-hand) (By [TheKingKez on Tumblr](https://thekingkez.tumblr.com/post/188231161711/kravitz-stroke-his-thumb-over-taakos-hand), with image description [here](https://nachtkissen.tumblr.com/post/188233241682).) 

“I was hoping,” Taako said into his shoulder, “that if she's right there during the wedding, that I won't forget her. I would remember her whenever…” he couldn’t finish the sentence. “I'm so egoistic, I can't believe you're going to marry me,” Taako laughed to distract from how raw he felt after saying all that. 

“Do you know why I picked the wedding date?” 

“I appreciate the conversation change, but yes, you told me that the date is important to you.” 

“It is,” he said with a solemn nod, “But I don't remember why. I know it was an important date to me, something worth celebrating. No matter how hard I try to remember, I don't know why. It could have been the birthday of a parent, or a friend.” 

“Or a past lover,” interrupted Taako. 

“Or even a past lover. I don't know why the date is important to me, but you agreed to give me a reason to celebrate it.” 

“Don't get sentimental while I'm still sad about my thing. I can only have one feeling at a time.” 

“What I was trying to say, which apparently flew right over your head,” Kravitz squeaked as Taako pinched his sides, “sorry,” said with no remorse, “What I'm trying to say is, this wedding is ours. If it makes you happy if Lup is front and centre? Alright, I don't mind. I'm still getting married to you.” 

“Hm.” 

“We can ask her tomorrow if she wants to officiate it.” 

“Absolutely not. That was a terrible idea. We'll think of something else, though.” 

“Alright, something else then,” Kravitz stroked through his fiancé’s hair. Both fell into silence, just enjoying each other’s presence after discussing such a heavy topic. 

“Let's go to bed, feelings always make me tired,” said Taako.

“Wait, my tea is almost the perfect temperature to drink, it only needs a few more minutes.” 

“How often— It won't go below room temperature!” 

Kravitz didn’t succeed to hide his laugh. 

* * *

“I can't believe Taako is getting married!” 

“Mhm,” Barry mindlessly filled out the report from their last mission. Desk duty was nice and he sometimes took it from Kravitz and Lup voluntarily. It was easy to fill out a report on necromantic antics when you know exactly what the amateur necromancer attempted, and more importantly, how much damage they could have caused if they succeeded. He had to admit though, as much as he loved Lup, it was a lot harder to focus while she wanted to talk. 

“Kravitz is good and all, but they've been dating for what? Three weeks?” 

“Almost three years.” 

“Pretty much the same!” 

“He's good for Taako, I've never seen him that happy.” 

"I have!" she said defiantly, not elaborating further on the circumstances. 

* * *

Lup threw herself into the chair next to him. “It's too early, though! I can't believe he's getting married before me!” 

“We got married in 27 planar systems.” 

“But not on this one, yet,” she whined. 

He handed the report to Lup so she could look over it while he grabbed the “extremely urgent” file that Kravitz had been handed a few weeks ago. Who dumped it on Lup a week ago. Lup had “sneakily” hid it in Barry’s pile of work last Wednesday. Nobody had asked about that “extremely urgent file”, so Barry put it at the bottom of his work pile, which he was now getting to. 

“I thought we had more time before he gets married. I don't want him to get married first, I'll never hear the end of that.” 

“Could do a shotgun wedding.” 

“We already did a shotgun wedding. Two if you count cycle 84,” she added as an afterthought. 

“We did most weddings already.” 

Lup sighed dramatically. 

“We could get a normal—” 

“No!” she interrupted him, “this is our final wedding, it has to be special!” 

“Every wedding with you is special.” 

“Aw, babe. Flattery won't get you out of the conversation.” 

“It wasn't supposed to.” 

Both went silent as they thought about the time they spent together. Their first wedding in cycle 66, after the judges world, was more of a celebration to the survival of their family. The next few weddings were calmer ones, a simple celebration. Until wedding 69 set off a wilder tone. They got married in almost every cycle, with the exception of either of them or Taako dying. Lup refused to get married without her best man. 

During some of the hardest times, Barry's and Lup's wedding was the only reason their family had to celebrate. Times were calmer now, though. It has been almost three years since they defeated the Hunger, there was no hurry in planning their final wedding. 

Except that the twins were competitive in the worst ways, apparently. 

“Our family has grown, doesn't this make this wedding different enough?” 

“We already had a big wedding! Cycle 85 where a whole town of— what was their name?” 

“They called themselves Singyons.” 

“Right. Town full of Singyons who were completely fascinated by those weird-ass races and their weird-ass wedding traditions,” Lup said it in the same tone as the Singyons had done so many times during their wedding. Which had not followed any particular wedding tradition, if Barry remembered correctly. 

“A town full of strangers isn't the same as Kravitz, Mavis, Mookie, Carey, Killian.” 

Lup grumbled as she leaned back in her chair, “I just want this wedding to stand out, you know? So it won't disappear in the sea of weddings we already had. Ugh.” She lifted her feet of the desk and the chair fell back into place. “Maybe getting married every cycle was a mistake.” 

“Getting married to you was never a mistake,” before Lup could make another joke, Barry continued more seriously, “During the 10 years on my own, the memory of every single wedding helped me stay together.” Lup scooted her chair closer to him, but didn't interrupt. “The memory of you, of our family celebrating our love, kept me grounded. It helped me going forward and continue my search for you.” 

Lup took his hand and intertwined their fingers. 

“Please believe me when I say, that every single wedding to you is special,” he continued. 

“Even the one where you, Lucretia and Magnus were high on those green crystals?” 

He grinned, “Especially that one.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please check out @[TheKingKez](https://thekingkez.tumblr.com/), she has so much more great art!


	2. Get out of your head

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Content warning:** Panic attack caused by claustrophobia.

Lup should not be as upset over Taako's wedding as she was. She should be happy about him settling down, especially with someone like Kravitz who was by far the best boyfriend Taako ever had. Admittedly, the bar wasn't particularly high. Kravitz was good, though. Lup could freely admit that after working with him for over two years.

It was just so _early._ He can't get married after only three years of dating! Lup was pretty sure that was illegal, and if not, she'd fight legal systems to make it illegal. 

“I'm not waiting for 50 years to marry him.” 

Lup hadn't said anything, but Taako knew what she was thinking. Of course he did, they knew each other well enough to do so. That's what happens when you spend your lives together. At least the majority of it. He knew what Lup was thinking without her having to say anything. 

“It weren't 50! We married after 19 years of dating, I think that's a good time to get to know each other.” 

Taako kicked her from his side of the couch that they were sharing. A brave move that resulted in a half-hearted kicking battle. Which, according to Lup's rules, she had won.

They were in Taako's and Kravitz’ small house. A cottage, almost. It had barely enough room for one person, Lup had no idea why anyone would want to _share _that space. Especially if they were filthy rich and could afford any building on the planet. 

It would have been obvious to everyone who knew Taako that he'd get himself a mansion once he got the necessary funds. There was a whole decade where Taako had talked about nothing else but his future mansion and how many servants he’d have to clean all those unused rooms. He had a scrapbook with pictures of expensive furniture he wanted to own. The swimming pool had a swimming pool in it.

Now? A small house next to a village that had been left out of all local maps. 

He had insisted that a mansion would be too empty for just two people living there. An argument the Taako she knew would never make. Who cared about empty? It’s a mansion, it’s not supposed to be filled. It’s supposed to flaunt your belongings. Which was 90% of Taako’s motivation at all times. 

_Which had been his motivation at all times_, Lup corrected herself. Now he made different decisions than Lup expected, but it was _fine_.

With the exception of the house itself. Apparently that was not fine, according to Lup’s mental well-being. To be fair, this was not something any of them had thought about right after they finally defeated the Hunger and had to find places to live. The problem was, Lup had developed claustrophobia. Hiding away in a small room together with her brother used to be a comfort to her, now just the thought of how cramped Taako’s bedroom was made her nauseous. It’s ridiculously tiny, he might as well live like fantasy Harry Potter underneath the stairs. There had been only a small window so the room was always dark. 

Lup _despised_ that room. If one day the roof would crash down on it, oh she would celebrate the day for eternity. Until then they were limited to hanging out in the living room, staying in any other room of the house ended with a heated discussion about making _those damn windows larger so there'd be more sunlight._

“Maybe I don't want us to better know each other,” said Taako after the silence stretched on for too long. 

“What? That's dumb! You should know who you're getting married to.” 

“Yeah, but you know, on the Starblaster we learned to get along with each other despite Merle's plant fetish. I mean everyone's conflicting character.” 

Lup couldn't decide between laughing or rolling her eyes. “We had to.” 

“Exactly. Maybe if we're married we'll be more inclined to find a way around our problems instead of just… separating.” 

“Taako,” she began, then stopped herself just to begin again, “I was hoping I’d never had to ask that, but are you pregnant?” 

“Absolutely not,” he answered bewildered. 

“Are you hiding away a secret child?” He set on to a reply, but Lup clarified, “And I don't mean Angus.” 

“No, I'm not hiding any children. Why the questions?” 

“Is Kravitz like crazy rich?” 

“Lup,” he was visibly getting annoyed with her antics. Annoyed enough to use his parental voice that he had trained on Angus. Unfortunately, “parental” didn’t mean shit to Lup. 

“What? I mean, okay, he is. Stupid question. Are you… hm,” Lup thought about possibilities that might be more realistic.

“Why are you asking those weird questions?”

“Why are _you_ trying to trap him in a marriage?” Lup fired back. 

“I'm not!” he spluttered, “There is no entrapment going on!” 

Lup didn't dignify that statement with any kind of reply. Sure there wasn't. 

“No really! Just a honest wedding between two very hot people who love each other.” 

“Then why are you thinking about separation?” 

Taako bit his lip, and Lup knew that look on his face. He was trying to find a phrasing that would reveal the least about his thoughts without outright lying. She hated that look. 

“I'm not _thinking_ about separation, I'm trying to avoid one.” 

“Which means you’re thinking about reasons for a separation! Why would he want to break up with you?” Lup said in disbelief, the “you're Taako, from TV” stayed unspoken between them. Taako would have never worried about people leaving him, it was their loss not his. Taako didn't need them. 

The Taako she knew didn't need them. The Taako from over ten years ago didn't need them. The Taako who was willing to blow up a world if it would make their mission easier. The Taako who stopped caring about the places they visited, who didn’t care about anything that went outside of his interests. Who didn’t view the people of Faerûn as people, but as a mean to stop the Hunger. Sacrificing them was a lesser evil than sacrificing all of existence.

The Taako in front of her very much cared, and she didn’t know how to deal with that. Taako is not supposed to care, he’s the one who had kept the two of them safe for centuries through careful detachment. Taako should be against the wedding, should be against being _stuck_ with someone he barely knows, barely trusts. 

Instead he worries how Kravitz would think of him if he knew too much (despite him knowing their whole story and song). Instead he spends time teaching people he has no relationship to, not just Angus, but a whole school of children. Instead he had risked his life multiple times to protect the people of this planet. 

Taako had his memories back, why was he behaving so _different_. 

The years alone changed him. 

_Of course they did_, Lup would have laughed if she weren’t stuck in her own head, _they changed all of us_. She knew that, of course she knew that. How could she forget? How could she ignore how differently Taako had behaved right in front of her, while he thought he was alone. 

The room felt suddenly very small. 

She remembered when Taako joined the B.o.B. 

(Remembered being trapped and not being able to talk to her brother.)

His easy going pretense around the others, but how little he actually interacted with them. 

(Always alone, like she had been for so long.)

How he took on missions that were too dangerous, that could get him killed, just so he had a place to stay. 

(She couldn't protect him, she was on his side but couldn't help.)

Desperate for a home and camaraderie. 

(Desperate for someone to talk to, who would listen to her.)

How he kept everything about his life secret, not trusting anyone. 

“Lup?”

Not trusting his sister. 

“You in there?” 

She thought he was back to his old self once he regained his memories. 

“Can you like, uhm, answer something?” 

He was so nonchalant, the same he had always been. The same way he had acted around the B.o.B., seemingly not caring about anything while hiding away everything and everyone he cared about. 

“What's my name?” 

How could she forget the year that she was closest to him since they've landed on Faerûn? They've only talked to each other a few times every week since then, sometimes less if work kept them busy. 

“Uhm, how about your name?” 

(Because she didn't want to remember the time she was trapped.) 

“What's your name?” 

“Lup.” 

“Oh thank fuck,” Taako's voice was frantic, as if he was panicking. But why would he? “Do you know where we are?” 

The umbrella. Taako's room on the moon basis. Her eyes were directed at the floor, not really taking anything in. The floor was freezing, but she got used to it over time. After a while, she had wished to still feel the cold when she sat down. 

The floor was covered with a soft carpet. The umbrella didn't have a carpet. It had pieces of curtain that she attempted to rip down, but no carpet. 

She wasn't in the umbrella. 

“Living room?” she asked.

“Yeah! My living room. I'd ask you for today’s date, but I honestly don't know either.” 

Time was so hard to keep track of. She'd fade out of consciousness and missed whole days. 

“Barry and Kravitz went on the mission today, so it's…” Taako continued. 

Barry had been excited to go on the mission with Kravitz, it seemed to be a calm one. Just surveying the scene before anything dangerous could happen. Handing out warnings to potential necromancers. He had been excited for the vocation-like mission.

“Wednesday,” it dawned on her. 

“Oh shit, is it Wednesday already?” 

“Mhm.” 

“Alright, next question! What are you wearing?” 

She knew that, “A red robe.” 

“Nope.” 

No? She always wore the red robe though. That’s all there was. Red curtains, red floor, red robe. 

Taako must be lying. 

Lup looked down on herself and true to what he said, there was no red to be seen. _Of course not_, she thought, _I only wear red on the job_. 

“A blue spring dress.” 

“You got it, sis! Hey, you think you're good enough to get up? Maybe like going outside would help. Fresh air and freedom seem pretty good right now.” 

“Sure.” 

It was early spring, which south of Neverwinter meant it was far enough into the season that you needed a jacket in the morning, but had to take it off during the day. The air was still cool when Lup opened the door. She stepped right over the shoes as they went outside, not wanting to bother with unnecessary confines. The grass was nice on their naked feet, softer than a carpet and more refreshing than the feeling of a cold floor. 

The sun warmed her as she took a deep breath. 

And another.

And another. 

They spent minutes standing there, while Lup soaked everything in, grounded herself. The sound of leaves in the wind replaced an eternity of silence. Taako reached for her hand and she relished the contact to her brother. He was warmer than the sunshine. 

She wasn't trapped in the umbrella anymore. Taako wasn't trapped in the B.o.B. They were free to live where they wanted, Taako and Lup were still close, still talked to each other multiple times a week. It wasn't perfect, but they were okay. 

[ ](https://hysterical-random-things.tumblr.com/post/188265753643/my-first-piece-for-tazbang-2019-for-the-second)

_They are happy_, is what she told herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Art by @[Hyst](https://hysterical-random-things.tumblr.com/), direct link to [the post with ID](https://hysterical-random-things.tumblr.com/post/188265753643/my-first-piece-for-tazbang-2019-for-the-second). You def should check out their other art!
> 
> This fic was supposed to be FLUFF and FUN.
> 
> If you haven't seen yet, @[TheKingKez](https://thekingkez.tumblr.com/) has drawn a cute Taakitz for the last chapter!


	3. Of puppies and chocolate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everything about this chapter makes it painfully obvious that I’ve written it over a year ago.

Magnus’s house was as lively as ever. More precisely, his garden was as lively as ever, where he was currently playing with a whole variety of dogs. Lup could hear him laughing from where she opened the portal, now casually strolling towards the noise. One of the younger dogs was the first to notice her, a Maltese dog named Karen, which was a completely irresponsible name for a pup. Lup petted her regardless. 

“Hey Lup!” Magnus had finally noticed her. 

“How's it going?” 

He had a wide smile as he yeeted a ball, three dogs sprinting after it. “Great! And you?” 

A curious Timtim had now joined Karen and begged her happily for attention. She obliged and then navigated around them to get into Magnus’ hugging distance. Without any hesitation or question, he immediately pulled her into one of his legendary hugs. 

“Eh, fine I guess. Barry is still out, so it's kinda silent.” 

Magnus nodded understandingly, “You're always welcome here, you know?” 

The question was rhetorical, but Lup answered anyway. “That's kinda why I'm here,” she laughed. 

“You can stay as long as you want! There's not much silence here.” 

Mr. Woofington was the one to bring back the ball in triumph and earned himself an ample amount of praise. Magnus picked the ball up and threw it again, Timtim has now joined the hunt too. 

“That's not the only reason I'm here, though.” 

“Oh?” Magnus turned back to his best friend to give her his full attention. 

“I wanted to ask you about something.” 

“I swear, if this is about Taako's wedding again...” 

“No! I mean, not directly. Only kind of… It's just really early to get married, y'know?” 

“Actually! As a human, I don't.” 

He said it as if this was a sudden realisation, something that he hasn't considered before and which would turn the tide in this conversation. In reality, they had this exact same exchange every time they talked to each other since Taako announced he was getting married. 

“Anyway, not what this is about. Uhm. How often do you talk to Taako?” 

“At least once every other week when we bake together. Sometimes more often if his cats did something adorably stupid and he has to tell everyone right away. Which I appreciate, just for the record.” 

She sat down in the grass, with Karen climbing into her lap almost instantly. “Absolutely. Has he told you about that time Flat Earth trapped herself in the bathroom by jamming the door with a cupboard?” Magnus nodded enthusiastically and sat down next to Lup while she continued talking. “It took him an hour to get a hold on either of us, he almost destroyed his own door in the meantime. Barry had to create a portal into the bathroom to unblock it.” 

Both of them laughed despite already knowing the story. 

“I love Flat Earth so much,” said Magnus. 

“She's so dumb.” 

“She certainly earned herself the name.” 

They spent a moment to appreciate the dumbest cat either of them have ever met. Apex predator my ass. 

“So what about Taako?” 

Lup left the question hanging. She had decided to talk about it on an impulse, it was about her brother of course she had to talk about it. But now that she needed to put it into words she had no idea how. 

“He's just… different.” 

“You mean the Taako you know would have never gotten married that quickly?” he asked with a teasing grin which earned him a punch on the shoulder at about 8% strength. 

“Not talking about the wedding!” Timtim brought a ball to her, almost definitely a different ball than Magnus had thrown, and Lup threw it with all of her reaper strength (which was a lot). “Just in general.” 

Magnus shrugged. “Not really? I mean he's more worried about the wedding than I expect him to be. After all of yours and Barry's weddings we're all pretty much experts, not really anything out there that we haven't dealt with. But he changed so it had to be expected.” 

“That's it!” Lup jumped up, scaring poor Karen who was lying in her lap. 

“Huh?” 

“He changed!” 

“Yeah, everyone changed.” 

Lup set on to an argument. _ You haven't_, was what she wanted to say. _ You still love dogs, and you’re still fighting the good fights, and you’re still charging into danger without a second though. _

One look at Magnus’s face silenced her. He grew older, not old, not yet, but older. An age that still felt so foreign to her after a century of no visible change of her family. He had scars that weren’t there before, that wouldn't reset after a year. Not just physical scars. He had lead a revolution, which was so very _ Magnus_. He was always so reckless; throwing himself off a train, jumping between battlewagons. Always the first to jump into action. 

Except there he was, sitting in his garden, playing with a bunch of dogs instead of charging headfirst into heroic battles. He had changed.

Not just physically. 

Lup had been gone for ten years, barely conscious for most of it. It wasn't like dying early during a cycle. Dying felt so easy after doing it so many times, she came back and things just continued right as they were. Taako would be in the middle of an argument with Barry, refusing to talk to him for some petty reason or another. She’d come back and ask about how things turned out after she left. She’d get caught up and it her death wouldn’t matter as soon as they would land on the new planar system. Being gone for a year had never been a problem.

Ten years weren't a long time either, especially not for elves. Ten years shouldn't be a long time for any of them after living through 100 years of running from the Hunger. But after returning she had never quite felt like she caught up on everyone’s life. 

It weren't just ten years that she was gone. To them, she had been gone for a lifetime. A lifetime they lived without her or the rest of the family. 

Lup deflated on the ground and Magnus pulled her into a wordless hug. 

* * *

Angus couldn’t stop the disappointment from spreading through his body when he entered Taako’s and Kravitz’s house. He was there for this weekly Magic-slash-Baking lesson, it was always up in the air what Taako would be in the mood for, and today it smelled like a baking day. It had to be expected, to be quite honest, Angus had noticed an increased amount of baking days over the past few months, a mix of stress baking and trying out new recipes for his wedding. This didn’t dillude his disappointment, though. 

He walked through the house towards the kitchen, following the amazing smell of chocolate and hazelnut. “Good morning, Taako!” He announced himself to not startle his tutor. 

“Perfect timing, I was just about to put these together.” Taako said as if Angus didn’t come in every week at the exact same time and as if Taako didn’t prepare everything to be about ready just now.

“Are those Ferrero Rocher?” Angus asked while getting out his baking-notebook that had some questionable stains from past baking attempts. 

“_Gourmet _ Ferrero Rocher! Can’t serve the mass-produced ones at _ my wedding_.” Taako was coating a chocolate ball covered in pieces of hazelnut in the last layer of chocolate. “The ones back there should be ready to eat.” He pointed at a tray full of homemade Rochers where the chocolate had already set. Angus took one of them and took a deliberate bite. 

“So good! These are amazing!” 

“Of course they are,” Taako tried to play it off but Angus knew how much Taako loved getting compliments. 

Angus grabbed another one as Taako finished his batch. There were still some ingredients left and Angus knew this meant that it would be his turn to learn how to make them. But he didn’t want to. 

“Soo, now that you’re done with them, can we start with the magic lesson?” he asked despite knowing that there’d be no magic lesson today. 

“And what? You expect me to make all of these for my wedding myself? Oh no, boywonder, you’ll be learning how to make those.”

“Child-work is illegal, sir.” He said it with such a serious tone that Taako couldn’t do anything but laugh. Angus had been working for years as a detective, in the B.o.B., and later as a detective again. Taako couldn’t care less about legalities except when they favoured him. 

He stopped laughing when he noticed that while Angus wasn’t serious about legalities, he was very serious about the magic lesson. 

"I expected you to be happier about the lessons I give you, but I can call Magnus instead. I'm sure he'll enjoy baking with me," two people could play the passive-aggressive game. 

Angus didn't bother praising Taako's lessons in general, they were long past the need of bootlicking. So he ignored what Taako said and answered the underlying message instead. "There's been so many baking lessons lately, and while I love those," okay maybe a little bootlicking, "I've been stuck at sixth level spells for months now! I need to learn seventh level spells ASAP!" 

"You're like ten." 

"I'm 13! I'm almost 14!" 

"Yeah listen kid, if you need to say you're _ almost _ older than you are, then you're too young for that shit." 

"But—" 

Taako held up a finger in front of Angus' face to stop him. "Uh-nuh. What's the definition of almost?" 

"Uhm, not quite yet?" 

"Yep! You're not 14 yet. You're 13, period. Which is, by the way, still a baby." 

Angus rolled his eyes, "This isn't relevant to anything!" 

"Of course it is," Taako casually started chopping roasted hazelnuts. They were wasting precious baking time right now and Taako's time was expensive. "You're getting way ahead of yourself. You don't need to learn seventh spells A-S-A-P, if you're stuck at level six then that's what you need to learn first." 

"Then teach me!" 

"Nope." 

Taako continued mixing the ingredients for the Rocher wafer while Angus couldn't believe he got told off like that. It was a surprise to him how Taako's audacity would still catch him off guard.

"No? But you just said—" 

"I said you're getting ahead of yourself. You're like ten." 

"I'm 13!" Angus repeated more forcefully, "almost— I'm 13." 

A huge grin spread on Taako's face, while Angus was visibly annoyed that his teenage self had to be corrected by an _ adult. _ But he was here for the learning experience, so he probably shouldn't complain. At least not out loud. 

"Are you going to patronise me because of my age?" 

"What I'm going to say is, you're ten and learning sixth level spells. You know what I did when I was the elven equivalent of ten? Nearly burning a house down because I thought it'd be a great idea to extinguish a grease fire with water." Angus laughed at Taako's nonchalant storytelling, so he almost missed him adding "That Lup started" as an afterthought. (But not quite.) "So by any means, you're doing well." 

Angus wanted to argue, but Taako didn't want to hear any of that and continued with, "You're doing yourself no favour by stressing over it y'know? The more you stress, the more you're gonna associate magic with stress. Which is a slippery slope down to anxiety-ville." 

“Talking out of personal experience?” Angus asked curiously. 

“Listen,” Taako started as always when he wants to buy time to think about the reply. Angus considered how patient he should be about it, if he’d interrupt Taako’s musing then they’ll get faster back on track. But if he’ll let Taako finish, then there was the tiniest chance that he’d get a story out of it. Was it worth it? Time would tell. 

"I'm your mentor for a reason. I need to know this kind of shit. How else am I supposed to teach you?" 

Angus was almost as upset about the lack of story as he was about that reply, "But you're not!" 

Taako gasped in the fakest way he could muster. 

"I want to learn magic and you're not teaching me!" 

Taako sighed dramatically, "Alright." Angus perked up but his hope got crushed immediately. "If you don't accept normal arguments, I'll give you the adult vs children argument: because I say it's better to bake now." 

"But Taakooo," he whined like the 13 year old he was. 

"Nope, lost your chance to argue on even ground. You're demoted to my child, so listen to papa." 

Angus whined some more and tried to further argue against it, despite knowing that Taako won't have any change of heart. Today was a baking day so Angus grabbed a tray of roasted hazelnuts and started chopping. 

They were almost done with the third batch of gourmet Rocher when Angus asked, "Why are you stress baking anyway? Are there problems with the wedding?" 

"Can an elf not indulge in some homemade Rocher without it being a stress thing?" asked the stressed elf. 

"The red velvet cake?" 

"Lup's favourite, and you know I can make it better than she can." Angus had started exactly one argument of "which twin is the better baker/cook" and would never repeat that mistake and he would never voice his personal opinion. 

"Crustless cheesecake?" 

"It was Timtim's birthday and I had to perfect the recipe before I shared it with Magnus." 

"Timtim is lactose intolerant!" 

"That's why it took so long." 

"He's also a dog who shouldn't eat that much sugar." 

"Nobody should eat that much sugar, but what is life if not—" 

"What about the éclairs? Why—" 

"Okay, I'm stressed!" Interrupted the incredibly stressed elf the smug child who interrupted him only moments ago. Someone should teach that child manners. Someone other than Taako.

"Oooh?" Angus leaned forward as if Taako was about to spill gossip instead of telling him about his issues. He definitely spent too much time with the twins with how much compassion he had lost. 

"Nope!" Taako popped in one of the Rocher and bit down hard. Gotta let that steam out somehow now that stress baking was illegal. "None of your business. The day I unload my emotional baggage on a child is the day I can stop claiming I have morals." 

Angus waited for a moment to figure out if Taako was serious or if this was one of his goofs. There wasn't any of the goof-telling signs, though. "Sir, you don't have any morals." 

Taako threw in the towel. So Angus picked it up from the floor because he most certainly had good manners, not like a certain teacher of his. 

"You know what I mean," said Taako and ate a roasted hazelnut. 

Except Angus didn't. It was understandable that Angus wouldn't be Taako's first choice, Angus was well aware that he still lacked experience in interpersonal relationships. That wouldn't be Taako's issue, though. Taako rarely took anyone's advice, he was usually just looking to vent and venting was a display of trust. And Taako trusted him, Angus knew that with certainty. 

Also, while Angus couldn't always give advice, he was very good at letting people vent and dissect the underlying information. He was a competent the detective, it was his job to listen to people and find out what they aren't telling him. Easily done once people start to mindlessly complain. He could figure out Taako’s real problem even if he didn’t know about it himself!

Angus was used to adults piling their problems on him, he couldn't understand why Taako took issue with it. 

“Please, just tell me so we can stop stress baking.”

Taako booped his nose with a chocolate covered finger, “Oh, so it’s for personal gain, huh? You don’t actually want to help me, this is just for those free lessons that I generously offer to you.” Taako held his hand to his chest (but not touching because Taako would never cover his own clothes in chocolate), slight head tilt to the right that Angus had copied from him more often than he cared to admit. And a nice pout to make the picture perfect. 

Unfortunately for Taako, Angus was a very good student and, to be frank, a manipulative lil shit. 

“But daaaad,” whined the lil shit who was taught to be as exploitive as possible by none other than Taako. Should have guessed that it would backfire one day. 

“You’re not done chopping those walnuts.”

“Etherealness would be so useful for my job, but I can’t get it to work on my own!” No wait, Etherealness is a 7th level spell, it would only start another “don’t jump ahead” discussion. “And True Seeing of course, I need truesight so badly,” he lied. Angus’s glasses were enchanted with truesight and if he ever lost them then his loss of truesight would be the least of his problems. Why are they wasting their time on that spell?? “I feel like I’m so close to a breakthrough, if you just—”

“The hazelnuts.”

With a groan he grabbed the knife and continued chopping way too carelessly. Hopefully, Merle is on speed dial in case Angus chops off a finger instead. “I’m just saying,” he continued like the teenager he was, “You hate that I’m pestering you, I hate the amount of stress baking we’re doing. Just let me solve this and at least _ I’m _ gonna be happy about the situation!” 

There was a sudden silence as both processed what Angus just said. Angus himself was mortified. Did he really say this to his mentor-slash-father-figure-slash-cooler-uncle? Who has been giving him lessons despite being stressed out for months?? Whose face currently changed from surprise, to amusement to absolute and utter _ fondness _?

“You’re such a brat,” said Taako while barely holding back his laughter. “Who raised you like that?”

“Please stop.” Angus wished he still had his wizard hat on so he could have hide in it. 

“Telling me, an adult, to just get over it so you can get what you want from me?”

“Sir.”

“Un-be-lievable. I have to tell Kravitz.” 

"I didn't mean it like that!" The sound of a stone of farspeech dialling rung through the kitchen before Angus could see it. He blindly grabbed for it behind Taako's back, who just held it up high now, forcing Angus to jump for it. 

"Dear, I hope it's important." Kravitz' voice was slightly distorted. 

"Our child is a selfish _ brat_," he proclaimed proudly while a "No, not important!" was repeated in the background by said brat. Kravitz sighed very loudly.

"Which one?" asked Barry as if he couldn't hear the background noise. 

"The human one." 

The stone of farspeech was pulled out of Taako's hand. "Not important! Stay safe, love you!" said Angus from the top of a counter of which he shouldn't be standing on. 

"Love you, too," echoed both men and the call was ended. 

A hand was outstretched towards Angus, he first thought it was to ask for the stone back, but instead Taako helped him to get down from the counter. Before Taako could give him any kind of look, Angus was already looking for a towel to wipe it clean. It was unusually silent while he cleaned, both Taako and him had always so much to talk about, silence was out of place. 

"You did this to distract me." 

Taako threw himself into the chair, "Obviously didn't work." 

"Why won't you tell me?" 

Taako refused to name any of the reasons. 

"You know I'm going to detective it out of you if you don't tell me." 

"You'll detective the shit out of it either way." 

"Exactly!" 

Another uncomfortable silence that Angus couldn't spend baking because he didn't know the recipe. He had also chopped way more hazenuts than were probably necessary for the recipe, there were no whole ones left to put in the middle. 

"Alright, listen," Angus perked up faster than any of Magnus's dogs. "It's just some stupid sibling stuff, you know, the usual."

Angus nodded despite being an only child and having almost no friends his age. 

"I'm trying to get married and she hates every idea I have." 

This didn't sound like Lup. "Huh?" 

"I tell her I'm gonna wear this and she replies with an annoyed _ wore something similar on my 50th wedding_. I tell her we're considering a beach wedding and she's like, _ had one of these in cycle 125, not that great_. Not only does she not want me to get married, she hates everything about the wedding!" 

"Oh," yeah that sounded more like Lup, "I don't think this is about your wedding." 

Taako scrunched his eyebrows in confusion and immediately relaxed his face again to avoid getting wrinkles. "That's the only wedding there is." 

"She's talking about her own weddings, though." 

More silence, but less uncomfortable this time. Angus watched Taako’s gears work through the problem. He muttered more examples like the previous ones, hating on a fancy cake because it had been so impersonal. Shitting on the idea of making a cake themself because it had been way too stressful. Disliking formal wear, disliking casual wear. None of them in direct relation to Taako and his wedding, always in comparison to her own. It was so obvious that the two of them had talked about two different weddings, each not realising that they weren’t on the same page. 

He could see the realisation dawning on Taako. 

"Hey kiddo, you earned yourself a Rocher." 

"Can I get magic lessons instead?" 

The towel that he had just used to clean up the mess was thrown in his face. Rude. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed my mind, Angus is the new main character of this fic. 
> 
> The gourmet rocher thing is from the Bon Appétit test kitchen. [Here’s the video](https://youtu.be/XY-hOqcPGCY>). Flat Earth being stuck in the bathroom references [this video](https://twitter.com/GilbyRanger/status/835282684645638146) by Adam Ellis. ([Tumblr crosspost](https://nachtkissen.tumblr.com/post/163171546422).)
> 
> Taako is bringing those life lessons that I wanted to share, I guess?? Anyway, the one with stressing about learning a thing is true. It you're stressed while you learn something, then you'll always be stressed when you use that skill. Bc your brain made that negative connection to it. Study with a positive mindset, or you end up hating French for life, wasting 5 years worth of lessons, then spend a year trying to rewire your brain to like French so you can put it on your CV. This is absolutely unrelated to any personal experiences, of course. 
> 
> Taako’s “story” that I had to cut out (due to very awkward PoV changes) was about how he once wanted to become a bard for all the fame and attention but then noticed that it actually took effort to be good at music. Forced himself to practice. Absolutely hated it. Just thinking about it made him angry. Had to give up. Claimed for the rest of his life that he changed his mind because it didn’t advance his cooking.
> 
> Anyway, I'll try to post a chapter every other week or at least once a month. I finally able to write again and I really wanna finish this fic.

**Author's Note:**

> hmu @[nachtkissen](https://nachtkissen.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr or on Discord: Zumi#1573


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